By EastEndEddie Doherty of Mattapoisett, MA
One More Hand
Ned Doherty could make a deck of cards almost come alive. His skill at 7 Card Stud and High Low Jack was legendary in gambling circles throughout New England. His education with card play began at the tender age of 9 when he started to frequent his Uncle Gabbyâs barroom in Taunton, Massachusetts. The Parker House was an old fashioned saloon full of men bellied up to the bar and seated around tables playing poker under thick clouds of cigarette smoke. It wasnât long before young Ned was able to read âtellsâ in a gamblerâs behavior and was winning large pots of cash off of much older gents. His superior card playing ability would later help pay dental school tuition with his proficiency eventually earning him the title of âLife Masterââ the card playersâ version of the Hall of Fame.
Ned and his wife Carol watched their three sons grow up playing sports and become men. The father loved his boys equally, but played cards with the oldest son quite often even at a very early age. The oldest boy seemed to have a fascination for card games and the baseball stories told by his father. It was not unusual for these father and son sessions to go late into the night and early morning. The boyâs mother would call out from the bedroom that it was a school night and time for bed. Her protective pleas for sanity would always be answered with the same refrain from her husband – âONE MORE HAND.â
The oldest son loved to do anything with his father and always listened attentively. He could calculate race track pari-mutuel odds before the age of 6 and was the only kid in the neighborhood who knew that Ted Williams had won the baseball triple crown twice. Sometimes the oldest son would ask if they could go fishing. The father had taught his boys about basketball and baseball, but fishing was not his thing. It just wasnât in the cards! âNo fishing,â the father would playfully tell his son, âItâs your deal!â
Ned Doherty worked hard to become Dr. Edward J Doherty, DDS. He was a dental surgeon that spent most of his adult life helping thousands of grateful patients. Ned would abate their pain, and many times â their bill. He always said that no one should have to suffer while living in the greatest country on the face of the earth even if they were down on their luck.
Dr. Doherty is buried not far from the Cape Cod Canal in the National Veteranâs Cemetery in Bourne. Most people called him Ned or Doc, but I called him Dad. You see, I was that little boy who idolized his father late into the night as he taught me never to draw to an inside straight. He was a great man who continues to inspire me when I touch his granite grave stone or quietly work a lure into the rapidly moving current of the long winding canal.
We honor the memory of our loved ones with trips to the cemetery or the area where ashes have found a final resting place. These visits to sacred destinations help us to heal a broken heart and carry on with our lives. A grave stone is the most common marker, but sometimes the name of a deceased loved one will be engraved in a brick that has been purchased to support a project like those surrounding the Fisherman Statue in Bourne. There are many obvious ways to remember our dearly departed as well as some unusual and unique.
One More Cast
Jerry Malloy really enjoyed fishing the Cape Cod Canal. There is a little known memorial to this very decent man who happened to be an outstanding angler along the banks of the canal that is almost hidden in plain sight. A simple yet beautiful silver colored plaque is engraved with his favorite expression; the same thing that we all say or think to delay the inevitable end to a long day of fishing – âONE MORE CAST.â The exact location of the memorial will be kept secret out of respect for the Malloy familyâs legitimate concern for vandalism, but it is in close proximity to the raging currents of the big ditch that Jerry loved.
Anglers have probably used that same expression to extend the day since Saint Peter first let a net fly on the Sea of Galilee. Some of us have been known to take ONE MORE CAST about 30 times because we just canât end the day with anything less than a perfect throw across the saltwater or maybe we picked up a little seaweed on that last retrieve so one more toss is definitely in order.
Jerry Malloy was nearing the completion of the physically demanding and mentally exhausting Massachusetts State Police Academy on his way to becoming an outstanding trooper when he blew out his right knee with three weeks to go, but even that painful injury couldnât stop Jerry from continuing in law enforcement. He spent the rest of his State Police career as a dispatcher in more than one barracks including SP Middleboro where he worked with Cliff Watts, another dispatcher on the same graveyard shift. They would get off at 7:00AM and many times head straight for the canal. They had worked hard all night providing information to troopers trying to catch bad guys. Now it was time to catch fish.
Jerry liked to work his chunk bait into a west tide a couple of hours after slack at the Stone Church, the Cribbin and other select hot spots on the canal. He would reel his favorite blue and white surface plug slowly through the swells breaking over the mud flats off of Bell Road and would scale down the rocks near the Army Corps of Engineers HQ to get in a better position to land a cow. He put in the time while constantly joking around with Cliff and caught a lot of striped bass as an accomplished canal surfcaster before finally succumbing to cancer at the young age of 50.
Just the other day I read the words on Jerryâs plaque before descending the rip rap stone bank wall along the side of the canal. As soon as the bottom of my boots got wet I launched a heavy bucktail with the tip of my 10 foot surf rod aiming in the general direction of the National Veteranâs Cemetery beyond the big ditch. I was immediately reminded of two great men who had lived their lives by a couple of easy going slogans to prolong the action â ONE MORE HAND with a deck of cards and ONE MORE CAST with a saltwater lure.
The author, Eddie Doherty, was appointed Clerk-Magistrate of the Wrentham District Court for life by the late A. Paul Cellucci, Governor of the Commonwealth. Dohertyâs pen name comes from his favorite fishing spot on the Cape Cod Canal.
The photo credit goes to Bourne Police Detective John Doble who just recently retired after a long and legendary career in law enforcement that spanned Cape Cod and beyond. Doble is equally proficient with a badge, fishing rod or camera.
[easy-social-share]